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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27626590">RimWorld Legends</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bard_TheChronicler/pseuds/Bard_TheChronicler'>Bard_TheChronicler</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Apex Legends (Video Games), RimWorld (Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe, Crash Landing, Crossover, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Gen, Humor, Romance, Survival, Wilderness Survival, Worldbuilding</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 17:02:57</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>13,284</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27626590</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bard_TheChronicler/pseuds/Bard_TheChronicler</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The latest batch of competitors for the Apex Tournament Games unexpectedly find themselves seriously lost as they crash land onto an unknown planet in a far away galaxy. Can they survive in this new world? More importantly, can they survive each other? Read on!</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Bangalore | Anita Williams/Lifeline | Ajay Che, Crypto | Park Tae Joon/Wattson | Natalie Paquette, Mirage | Elliott Witt/Wraith | Renee Blasey</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>33</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. AGC-2715</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I wrote this a while ago, before the release of Loba. For now this fic will NOT include Loba, Rampart, or Horizon. Although I might try and weave them in later perhaps...</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>At first glance, AGC-2715 was a simple commercial transport ship. Its dull metallic silver hull was long and sleek, built for speed and stealth as it sped through the vast emptiness of space unimpeded and unnoticed, just as it was intended to. Contstructed in a time of peace, the ship sported only light armor and weapons, relying instead on its speed and maneuverability to escape from any potential hostile forces.</p><p>Currently, the ship was transporting twelve passengers, all of whom were secured in separate cryogenic chambers and completely unaware of the passage of time or space.</p><p>The ship was completely automated, run by a full suite of interconnected and highly sophisticated computer programs that allowed it to operate entirely without a crew. Equipped with a state-of-the-art quantum communications array, it was connected to human controllers who could monitor the ship in real time and make adjustments to ship systems as necessary from their control center many lightyears away.</p><p>If there were any problems encountered during a voyage, the ship computers were pre-programmed with a multitude of procedures, contingencies, and fail-safes that were triggered depending on certain conditions being met. And if none of that resolved the issue, the humans tasked with overseeing the myriad of deployed company ships would step in from their control room often many light years away.</p><p>It was exceedingly rare these days to lose a ship to anything short of catastrophic system failure, random acts of the universe, or outside interference by pirates. Even rarer was an outright attack by corporate rivals, though it has happened in the past. Still, losing a ship happened from time to time and more often than not the incident was swept under the rug so as to prevent any potential negative press, lawsuits, and subsequent drops in company stock value.</p><p>Space anomalies were nothing new. Most were persistent and located in relatively fixed points of space and were therefore easy to avoid. If they ever shifted, constant observation of them from passing ships as well as deep space sensor arrays and outposts made sure that galactic maps were updated to reflect any changes. Some, however, appeared randomly and didn't exist for very long. These anomalies were incredibly dangerous, and unfortunately for AGC-2715, one such anomaly just happened to occur right in the path of the ship as it exited hyperspace.</p><p>Despite being run by computers, the ship had no time to properly react in order to save itself as a wormhole flared into existence in front of it. This hole in spacetime swallowed the ship in its entirety as it disappeared from sight within the star system it had just entered, and by the time the human controllers many systems away were notified, the ship was already lost to them.</p><p>The corporate drones who were tasked with monitoring these types of ships scrambled to figure out what happened, and judging that it was something well beyond their control, they quickly went about consolidating all internal data on the ship and its voyage into a secure server while simultaneously wiping the existence of AGC-2715 from all external sources. Its cargo, while highly valuable, was not irreplaceable, and while it would not be easy to replace them, it could be done. Once the report was filed with their superiors, who read it with mild dissatisfaction, the incident and the ship were soon forgotten, and the well-oiled corporate machine continued humming.</p><p>Meanwhile, AGC-2715's journey through the wormhole was turbulent and chaotic, and the hull began to bend and fracture under the immense strain. Many ship systems were damaged and malfunctioning, and the quantum communications array was the first to go. Fires erupted on several decks and many sections of the ship lost power as the ship computer struggled to maintain enough integrity and safety in the passenger bay for its inhabitants to survive the ordeal. It was programmed to prioritize their survival at all costs.</p><p>When AGC-2715 was spit out the other end of the wormhole in an unknown sector of space, the ship was tumbling out of control and had already lost its navigation systems. The engines were offline, damaged beyond the limited self-repair that the ship was capable of. Judging that the ship was therefore doomed, what remained of the on-board computer activated one of its protocols to save the passengers, using what was left of its sensors to pinpoint the nearest habitable planet.</p><p>As fate would have it, the ship had been transported to the fringes of some far flung star system that happened to have such a planet. But because the ship was spinning wildly and unable to correct itself, venting atmosphere and leaking radiation among other things, the computer was forced to calculate separate ejection times for the escape pods that the passenger cryogenic chambers had been automatically loaded into.</p><p>It fired them off in pairs, though they had to be shot off at different intervals because each time they were ejected the ship changed course and the computer had to recalculate trajectories. The computer also made sure not to eject them too close together in order to prevent them from somehow hitting each other.</p><p>Eventually, all twelve tiny pods hurtled through space towards an unassuming planet deep within the habitable zone of this system. With the last of its power, the ship sent emergency supply pods it could after them, and then emitted a burst distress signal before it died and the ship went completely dark.</p><p>Thus ended the voyage of transport ship AGC-2715, and the journey of its unlucky passengers began.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Crash Landing: Wraith & Mirage</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The first pair of escape pods entered the atmosphere of the unknown planet approximately fifty-seven hours after being jettisoned from the now derelict transport ship, AGC-2715. Their hardened exteriors were designed for atmospheric reentry and potentially hard landings, and they had been well-protected from the ravages of the wormhole that their late ship had traveled through, so their structural integrity was near perfect. There was little risk to the occupants within as they barreled down to the surface.</p><p>It didn't take long before the pods, wreathed in roaring flames and trailing black-gray smoke, tore across the early morning sky. They burst through a blanket of low-lying clouds and, as they neared the ground, six small thrusters flared to life on each pod to arrest their momentum just enough to soften the landing.</p><p>Nearby wildlife fled in terror at their arrival by hoof and by paw, some nearly trampling each other in a mad scramble to get away from the extraterrestrial arrivals. Birds took wing and flew off in a wild cacophony of squawking, chirping, and fluttering feathers.</p><p>The first pod skimmed across the tops of a patch of trees, bending their trunks, breaking several branches, and causing hundreds of green leaves to fall off as the rush of wind from its passage ripped across them. It impacted an open area of soft brown soil and lush green grass with an echoing boom and carved a rut about seven feet deep and a hundred feet long as it slid across the ground and finally came to a rest beneath the shadow of a mighty oak tree, having torn up some of its thick roots in the process.</p><p>The second pod crashed deep in the forest a few miles to the north, breaking through dozens of trees that had long stood amidst its brethren for well over a century. Its booming arrival left a trail of destruction in its wake as it too finally came to a rest. Gray smoke rose from its superheated exterior that still glowed red-orange. The air around the pod sizzled.</p><p>Both pods stayed that way for almost an hour, undisturbed and in eerie silence except for the hissing and sizzling of the pods themselves as everything living, even insects, had fled their immediate vicinity. Blinking orange lights near a hatch at the top of the first pod suddenly stopped blinking and turned green. With a few beeps, the pod was depressurized with a loud and sustained hiss from narrow vents that opened up at several points around the pod.</p><p>The hatch clanked and whirred, and then slid open with one last hiss.</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>=x=x=x=x=A=x=x=x=x=</strong>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Wake up.</em>
</p><p>Her eyes fluttered open as she sucked in a long and strained breath, as if she hadn't breathed in an awfully long time. Her nostrils flared and her lungs burned with the sudden influx of cold air as she continued to gulp up much needed oxygen, coughing all the while as her body struggled to cope with the sudden awakening from cryosleep.</p><p>It was cold. She shivered mightily. She felt weak and sore all over, and her muscles groaned – or maybe it was her groaning? – as she tried to move. Her vision, blurry when she first opened her eyes, finally came into focus and she found herself blinking furiously as the frigid, dry air assaulted her eyes. It looked like she was inside a cryogenic chamber, the same one she had stepped into before her voyage into Outlands space and a new life.</p><p>They must have arrived. They wouldn't have taken her out of cryosleep otherwise. Her mind was a jumbled mess, but she took some comfort in knowing that she was one step closer to a new life.</p><p>
  <em>No.</em>
</p><p>That voice was still there, the one that spoke to her the most. It echoed in her mind, ethereal and mysterious, and yet familiar. She frowned. The muscles involved in the expression twitched and felt stiff. For the first time in a long while, she had actually been blissfully at peace while deep under cryosleep. The voices hadn't been able to reach her there. Only darkness and silence filled the space, and she had been glad for the respite. At least there was only one voice for now. She could manage.</p><p>
  <em>Get out.</em>
</p><p>She mentally glared at the voice but said nothing as she struggled to move her hand up to where a rather large button, blinking and bright red, was built into the inside of the chamber. It was hard to miss.</p><p><strong>OPEN</strong>, it read in bold capital letters. She pressed it.</p><p>The curved reinforced glass door, frosted from the cold environment of the interior, moved an inch as the sound of breaking ice echoed within the cramped chamber. She shivered again. Then it slid open smoothly and revealed yet another slightly larger chamber with several blinking lights. She squinted, the lights hurting her eyes a bit, and their blinking was giving her a headache. Or maybe she was already getting a headache having just woken up after god knows how long, she wasn't sure.</p><p>Gritting her teeth from the effort, she sat up in cryo chamber and saw that she was in a slightly larger but still quite small chamber of some kind. It was lit dimly by the flashing lights. There were pipes and wires and long curved panels of smooth metal. She slowly looked around, confused and suddenly feeling queasy.</p><p>Where was she? She had been on a ship before, but if her memory served her cryo chamber had been placed in a small room of its own. This was definitely not it. This looked more like the inside of an escape pod. She felt her anxiety rising.</p><p><em>Look behind you,</em> said the voice.</p><p>She reluctantly obeyed. It had never been wrong before, even though she was loathe to admit that. It was hard not to feel resentful of a voice that constantly spoke to you when you didn't want it to. But she knew that she wouldn't have survived this long without it. This voice in particular. Not the others. The others were terrible and unhelpful. Her headache worsened and she grit her teeth as she strained her body to turn around.</p><p>There was a hatch over there.</p><p>She struggled to clamber out of the cryo chamber, hands reaching out to steady herself against the cool metal of the outer chamber as she swung her legs up and over. She shivered. When she reached the hatch, she pressed yet another helpfully labeled button.</p><p>This one read: <strong>ESCAPE.</strong></p><p>She thought it was kind of funny. She had gone on this trip to escape her past, after all. To escape to a new and hopefully better life out in the Outlands. Would she actually find it here? Well, there was only one way to find out. She reached for the button, hesitated for a moment and shivered again, before she pressed it.</p><p>The light was blinding. She hissed almost similarly the machinery that surrounded her and squinted mightily as the sunlight assaulted her eyes. Raising a hand to shield her eyes, she waited until they adjusted enough to actually see anything.</p><p>Grass. Trees. Dirt. A sky of blue partially obscured by low-lying clouds of grayish-white. A long freshly dug trench of dark brown soil stretched for some distance from where she was. A gentle wind blew warm air into the escape pod, for she realized now that was what it was, and brought with it an earthy scent. She shivered.</p><p>With some effort, she pulled herself out of the pod, carefully moving one leg and then the other outside. But the foot of her trail leg caught on the inner edge of the hatch and her other leg, still feeling stiff and weak, was unable to hold her properly upright as she lost her balance. She tumbled into the trench with a soft thud, grateful at least for the gentle landing as she found herself face first in the dirt.</p><p>She breathed in the smell of the earth as she lay there for a little while. It felt somewhat comforting to be on solid ground again. Though where exactly she was, and why she had arrived here in an escape pod, was a mystery to her. One that she wasn't even sure she really wanted to find out about.</p><p>Her tumble left her feeling dizzy again, and the queasiness in her gut grew stronger. She felt that unpleasant feeling you got when you were about to vomit. Already she could taste bile in the back of her throat. She tried to control it and stamp it back down, with little effect.</p><p><em>Get up</em>.</p><p>"Why?" she finally responded to the voice, coughing as her voice, long unused, scraped against her dry throat. Her body felt weary. Her head ached. Her stomach was churning. She shivered, the cold of the cryo chamber lingering in her body even as the warm air of the great outdoors made her feel a little better as the minutes ticked by. She didn't want to move anytime soon. Especially when she felt like she was about to retch.</p><p>
  <em>The other one wakes.</em>
</p><p>"Other one? What other one?" she asked with mild annoyance, but no reply came. Only silence.</p><p>That was another thing that annoyed her about the voices. They spoke when they wanted to and said whatever they wanted, and she had no choice but to listen. Meanwhile, if she spoke to them, most of the time they ignored her. Like right now. It was infuriating.</p><p>Huffing, she carefully pushed herself up to her knees, wiping the dirt from her face and her form-fitting body suit. It had been given to her by the corporation that she had signed her life away to with the promise of a greater and better future. She looked around at the trench in the dirt that she was in. Some future this turned out to be, she grumbled.</p><p>"So," she said hesitantly as she carefully got to her feet. Her balance still felt off, and her leg muscles ached, but she was starting to feel a little stronger as her body warmed. "Where can I find this other one?"</p><p>
  <em>The forest.</em>
</p><p>She waited for more information, but as the silence stretched on she sighed. "You're <em>so</em> helpful," she said, her words dripping with sarcasm.</p><p>She climbed up the side of the trench and took stock of her surroundings.</p><p>In one direction there was the rocky base of a mountain covered in pines. It seemed small for a mountain, but it was certainly far bigger than a hill as it rose up to meet the sky halfway. Across from it and covering two other directions from where she was standing was a vast plain. There were patches of trees and brush every so often, but for the most part it was an empty expanse of green grass with the curves of some hills far in the distance.</p><p>She thought she could make out movement far away. Squinting, she figured they were animals given their vague shapes and the way they were moving. So there was wildlife here. Hopefully they weren't some kind of predators. She didn't have any serious weapons to fend them off with if they decided she'd be a tasty meal. The kunai was sharp and deadly for sure, but there was only so much she could do with it in close quarters against unknown beasts.</p><p>The forest was obvious as it covered the entirety of the last remaining direction. Trees of various sizes stood at ever increasing heights the deeper into the forest she looked. And not too far away, though certainly not a quick stroll either, she could see a column of smoke rising into the air. That was probably where she needed to go. Judging from the smoke, and from the voice telling her to find the "other," she guessed that there was another escape pod out there.</p><p>She glanced at her own pod. Before she went gallivanting through the unknown forest in an unknown land on an unknown planet, it would probably be best if she scavenged some supplies. And a weapon. Escape pods were supposed to have such things stored away somewhere.</p><p>Interlocking her fingers, she stretched her arms forward and flexed them, feeling the muscles in her fingers and hands stretching. It felt good. She sighed and slowly walked over to the pod to begin her search, fighting off a bout of nausea that was beginning to creep over her.</p><p>It didn't take long for her to find the storage compartments near where her cryo chamber was secured. Inside them were some supplies, and one compartment actually contained a backpack fully stocked with everything she needed to survive for some time. For food, there were twenty-four tubes of nutrient gels, twelve packs of ready-to-eat meals designed to last an untold number of years – perhaps even decades, and two dozen nutrient bars. Secured to either side of the pack were two metal canisters filled to the brim with water and with built-in water filters that ran on batteries charged by solar power.</p><p>She also had a few foldable tools to work with, like a pickaxe, a shovel, and an ax. They also came with materials to make a fire. She was particularly pleased to find her own personal dagger had been stored in a small compartment at the base of her cryo chamber. The razor-sharp kunai was made of a high-grade metal alloy with a blade about six inches long.</p><p>She expertly twirled the kunai around in her fingers, feeling its familiar weight and balance before tucking it away in a slot built into her suit specifically for the weapon. As a bonus, she found a nice thermal sleeping bag that she was definitely going to make use of when the time came to get some rest.</p><p>Unfortunately, there were no guns to be found, but at least she had her dagger.</p><p>She shivered, the cool darkness of the interior of the pod still far colder than it was outside. With one last check to make sure she had gotten what she could out of the pod, she stepped back out into the world beyond and tried to fight the increasing nausea she was feeling.</p><p>The queasiness in her stomach would not go away. She knew it was probably the aftereffects of the cryosleep she had just woken up from and decided against using any of the medicines she found in the pod to alleviate her symptoms. She had a feeling she was going to need them in the future.</p><p>"This better be worth it," she muttered as she made her way to the edge of the forest.</p><p>The underbrush grew thicker the deeper she went, and the trees grew closer together. Many of them had trunks so thick around she couldn't touch her hands together if she tried to wrap her arms around them. Their heavy limbs intermingled with the other trees around it, obscuring much of the sky in a ceiling of green leaves and dark branches.</p><p>With each step closer to the other pod, she grew increasingly wary. Anxiety began to eat away at her, thanks in part to the stillness and strange quiet of the forest around her. She tentatively reached for her dagger, fingering the metal loop at the end in case she needed to draw it out quickly. Why was it so quiet?</p><p>She had no idea how long she walked or how far she managed to go before she reached a freshly dug trench in the earth not too dissimilar to the one her own pod had made. Except this one included the broken and shattered remains of trees and other brush all along its length. Carefully, she walked along the edge of it towards the column of smoke in the distance.</p><p>By the time she was close to the pod, she discovered that the smoke was from a few small fires that had erupted close to the pod. Luckily, they were dying down and were quickly becoming nothing more than dark patches on the ground. Though she found it strange that it had not turned into a roaring forest fire. That would have been a problem if it had.</p><p>Her eyes looked upon the pod itself and she discovered that the hatch was already open, but there was no one in sight. She crouched low, body tensing as the kunai flashed in her hand. Her eyes tightened while she scanned the area around her.</p><p>"Hello?" she called out tentatively. She mentally prodded the voice for any assistance it might give her, but there was only silence. Typical.</p><p>She edged closer to the pod; all of her senses heightened. Or as heightened as they could be given her weakened state. The nausea was coming back stronger now, and her gut squirmed.</p><p>CRACK.</p><p>The sound of a twig snapping close behind her made her jump up and spin around, throwing her leg out into a kick on instinct.</p><p>"Ow!" cried a decidedly male voice as her leg connected with something solid. "Well <em>that</em> hurt."</p><p>Yet there was nothing there except air. Not that she could see, anyway. But then she saw it. The faintest shimmer of movement in the air. Her eyes widened slightly before narrowing again as the realization struck her. This other one was invisible!</p><p>Tensing her body, she jumped and kicked at the invisible person again, ready to follow up with a strike with her kunai, but this time her attack had been anticipated and her kick missed its mark. A pair of hands grabbed her outstretched leg in a strong grip and she yelped in surprise as the invisible assailant spun her around and then threw her against a nearby tree trunk.</p><p>Her back slammed into the tree hard, breaking off some bark, though thankfully the backpack absorbed most of the blow. There was nothing easily breakable in the pack save for the nutrient bars, and even if they were broken up, they would still be useful, just a bit harder to eat.</p><p>She still felt some of the wind get knocked out of her as her head snapped back a bit. Dull pain ran across her back while a sharp pain erupted around her neck like whiplash, momentarily blinding her as she slid down to the ground heavily.</p><p>Growling with both pain and anger, she scrambled to her feet and readied to stab with her kunai as the man shimmered into view a few feet away.</p><p>He was much taller than her, with sun-kissed tan skin and black hair in a disconnected undercut style that left the sides shaved short while the top was long and wavy with gold highlights. His square face and sharp features were framed by a dark, neatly trimmed full beard and mustache with goatee. He had golden ski mask goggles, of all things, though he was not using them as they were pressed up against his forehead. The glass was tinted purple, which actually looked rather nice with the golden frames.</p><p>What really drew her attention, though, was the gaudy gold and gray bodysuit that he was wearing. It was similar in some ways to her own, meaning that the same company had probably made it for him, but unlike hers his suit had strange clearly electronic plugs coming out all over his arms and shoulders. They looked like holographic projectors, and she figured they were probably how he was able to go invisible.</p><p>He spread out his arms to either side, gloved palms open and facing her.</p><p>"Well, <em>hellooo </em>beautiful," he said in a confident voice as his chocolate brown eyes stared at her with amusement. "When they told me this gig involved pretty ladies throwing themselves at me, I definitely thought they were just lying. Admittedly, maybe part of the reason I doubted them was because I have trust issues," he mused, chuckling. "But hey! I guess they weren't lying after all! So that's speck… spentangular? Spackular? Uhhh… Anyway, it's great! Yeah, real great."</p><p>He smiled at her, revealing perfectly straight pearly whites that she now wanted nothing more than to break with her fist.</p><p>"I know, I know. How can someone look <em>this </em>good? I mean, I did my hair for this and everything, so I know I'm lookin' good right now. Do I <em>feel</em> good though? Not so much, actually…"</p><p>Her fists shook, mouth tightening into a thin line. Arcs of energy crackled along her clenched fists as she felt power from the void starting to fill her, intermingling with her rising anger.</p><p>"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!" said the man with alarm, taking a step back as he made sweeping gestures with his hands. "Hold up, lady! Calm down! Your eyes are looking kinda freaky right now, ya know? Listen, I'm not trying to hurt you… anymore, at least. And I didn't even really mean to hurt you earlier, it's just… I mean you did kick me first, ya know? So I was clearly just acting in self defense when I threw you against that tree." He cringed. "That probably hurt, didn't it? Err… Sorry?" he offered weakly as he raised his hands in surrender.</p><p>Yeah. She <em>really</em> wanted to break his face in now. Maybe stab him a few times while she was at it and watch the life drain from his stupid handsome face. Wait, what? She blinked for a moment, then shook her head as she tried not to think any more on it. She was going to make him wish he had never been born.</p><p>"Oh-kayyyy then," he said warily, "You're mad. I get it. We all get mad. Shit happens, right? I get mad a lot, you know. Sometimes. When I'm angry. Because being angry means you're mad and… wait, what was I saying?"</p><p>She had had enough of his nonsense. She roared and lunged at him with her kunai with surprising speed, but he was far enough away that he was able to just barely dodge her strike by sidestepping and leaning to the side.</p><p>"That was <em>sooo</em> not cool!" he said as he backed off and held his palms out to her. "Please, can we just talk? Peacefully? Without sharp pointy stabby things coming at me?!" He implored.</p><p>She spun around and closed the distance between them again, kunai in a dangerous position.</p><p>"Ah shit," he said as she came at him with a flurry of blows and kicks, interspersed with a few slashes and stabs with her dagger.</p><p>She was a skilled fighter, but surprisingly so was he, and now that they were fully engaged in a fight, both of them were finding it hard to land convincing strikes against each other. Though it was more her attacking and him defending at this point. Her strikes flowed into each other one after another in an impressive display of skill. Her dagger eventually slashed a thin line across his suit, though it didn't penetrate the armor underneath.</p><p>"HEY!" he yelled angrily as he jumped back out of reach of her arms and legs and glanced down at the cut she managed to land. "Do you have <em>any </em>idea how much this suit cost to make?!" he asked incredulously. Then quickly followed with, "Not that I actually know that, but that's not really… what I'm trying to say is I designed this suit myself, ya know. You wouldn't believe how many hours I spent coloring all the little drawings they gave me. And you definitely wouldn'tbelieve how many times I had to redo it to get it just right. I mean, this is my baby. My pride. And you've scratched it. So you better apologize right now for this… uh… this tragedy, or… or else!"</p><p>He pointed at her warily as he finished speaking and tried to put on a menacing face, though it didn't really look all too menacing in her opinion. He did look kind of angry, but the absurdity over being angry at having cut his suit up a little as opposed to being angry that she was trying to actually hurt him in general baffled her. Then he gave up on his attempt at looking menacing and decided to flash her another million-watt smile.</p><p>She frowned, eyes narrowing even further at him. Why the hell was <em>she </em>going to apologize to <em>him</em>? There was no way that was going to happen. He was the one sneaking around trying to surprise her from behind like some creep so he should be apologizing, not her. She cursed that stupid voice in her head for making her come here. She was about to attack him again, having had enough of his foolishness, when he yelled at her to stop.</p><p>"HOLD IT!" He yelled so loudly and abruptly while holding up an index finger at her that it actually effectively caused her to freeze just long enough to watch as his eyes rounded to a troubling degree while his other hand clutched at his gut.</p><p>Then he stumbled slightly off-balance over to the side and proceeded to vomit unceremoniously into a nearby bush. Loudly. The sounds of splattering liquid accompanied by the violent rustling of leaves reached Wraith's ears.</p><p>Her face twisted in disgust as she averted her eyes, not wanting to see any part of that, let alone hear it. Her anger quickly dissipated, and she suddenly didn't feel the urge to outright kill him anymore. She still held her kunai firmly in her right hand, but as her breathing slowed and the adrenaline levels in her blood lowered, her bloodlust slowly ebbed away. It was hard even for her to stay murderously mad at an unarmed man who was helplessly vomiting his guts out into a bush.</p><p>"Ughhh…." He groaned, gasping for air. Then he vomited again.</p><p>The revolting smell of his vomit wafted over to her and spiked the light nausea she had been feeling since she had awoken, and she stepped farther away to prevent herself from throwing up too.</p><p>"Is that… Is that porkchops?" he asked weakly.</p><p>Okay, that was definitely gross. Why did he have to say that? There was absolutely no need to say that out loud. She could taste the acid in the back of her mouth now. This was not going to end well. Not at all.</p><p>The sound of him dry heaving made her shiver as she tried to control herself from doing the same. She took a step and almost fell into the nearby trench, catching herself just enough so that she simply fell to her knees along the edge of it. But the sudden motion caught her by surprise and broke her concentration, and then she couldn't stop it from coming out anymore.</p><p>She felt terrible, and the smell of it was awful. It continued for a few minutes until she was spent, her body weak and tingling. She felt lightheaded, and the world around her was as unsteady as if she were aboard a ship sailing across a turbulent sea in the midst of a maelstrom.</p><p>"You too, huh?" said the stranger suddenly close by and apparently finished with his bout of vomiting. He sighed and leaned over her, peering over the edge and down into the trench. "Huh. You did <em>not</em> eat porkchops," he noted.</p><p>"What?" she asked incredulously, her voice sharp but barely above a whisper.</p><p>"You didn't eat porkchops," the man repeated helpfully.</p><p>"Why does that even matter?" she asked, not following.</p><p>"I love porkchops," he said simply.</p><p>She took a deep breath. Whoever he was, this man was clearly an idiot, and his voice was starting to annoy her. It was almost as bad as the voices in her head. Almost. She cursed them both.</p><p>"Wait! You can speak!" he blurted out with a stunned expression, causing her to glare at him as the sudden increase in volume while he was so close to her was discomforting.</p><p>She didn't bother responding to him. The acid burned her throat and her mouth, and it tasted really bad. She shrugged off her backpack and grabbed one of the bottles of water. Twisting it open, she put the end to her mouth and drank from it greedily. The cool liquid washed away much of the acid from her mouth and felt soothing as it cascaded down her throat and into her now completely empty stomach.</p><p>"Is that water?" he asked, "That's water isn't it? Water's good. Water is great! I mean, who doesn't like some good ol' H2O, am I right? I like water. It's refreshing and we need it to survive and all that. I love beer though. Beer tastes great. And beer has water in it, so it's a win-win if you ask me. Do you like beer? Please tell me you like beer. But it's cool if you don't too. Just sayin'." He shrugged noncommittally.</p><p>She didn't respond as she finished drinking and shut the bottle before returning it to her pack. He eyed it closely and fidgeted.</p><p>"Uh… can I have some? Please? Pretty please?" he asked hopefully.</p><p>She gave him a withering glance. "Go get your own."</p><p>He seemed taken aback by her hostility and sighed. "Wow. Okay. Time out." He formed a 'T' with his hands. "You're still mad at me then? I'm sorry. Really, I am. You know I think we got on to the wrong foot. Or... got off on the right foot? No, that doesn't sound right either…" he trailed off into a mumble until he simply fell silent for a few seconds, looking deep in thought with fingers tapping his lips. Then he blinked, shook his head, and smiled that pretty-boy smile of his.</p><p>"Anyways, how about we start with introductions then? Since we're here and, you know, we're probably going to be working together or something like that. Squadding up, as they say. That is what they say, right?" he looked at her uncertainly. "Well, whatever. What I'm saying is we signed up for the same gig. I mean, why else would you be here, right? So we're in this together. My name's Elliott, but you can just call me <em>Mirage</em>. Everyone calls me Mirage. So feel free to do that. Everyone except mom calls me that. But that's because she's my mother, you know? She knew me well before I was ever known as Mirage. Pleased to meet you."</p><p>He extended his hand and flashed her a winning smile.</p><p>She eyed it suspiciously and with disdain but said nothing nor made any move to shake it as he was apparently hoping she would do.</p><p>After a few seconds, his smile faltered and he laughed awkwardly, retracting his hand and flexing his fingers a little. "Ohhh-kay. No handshakes then. Got it. I'll just settle for a wave then." He gave her cheerful wave as she continued to stare coldly at him. "So what's your name, miss blue eyes? Can you at least tell me your name? If you don't, I'll just have to call you scary lady with the blue eyes from now on, and I doubt you'd want that. So please tell me your name, scary lady with the blue eyes. I promise not to make fun of it, unless it's... you know... <em>really </em>funny. But I'll only do it once."</p><p><em>Speak to him</em>, said the voice in her head.</p><p>"Oh <em>now</em> you want to say something?" she commented dryly.</p><p>"Huh?" said Mirage, looking confused. "I've been talking this whole time. At least, I'm pretty sure I've been talking… oh god, am I... am I mute and just imagining that I'm talking? Is this… Is this all happening in my head? Is any of this even real?" He started to pat the sides of his head strangely, like he was making sure it was still there. He turned to Wraith with wide eyes. "Are <em>you</em> real?" He reached out a hand to touch her and she quickly slapped it away.</p><p>"Ow!" He stared at his hand for a moment, and then without warning he slapped himself, hard, with a satisfyingly loud smack. "Ow…" he groaned again.</p><p>What the hell was wrong with him? She sighed and rubbed her face tiredly. "Wraith," she said finally.</p><p>"Excuse me?" he asked, rubbing his cheek where he had smacked himself. "What was that? Sorry, I didn't quit hear you. You're kinda whispering, you know. Almost like you're telling a secret, and ohhh let me tell you, I like secrets. I've got a lot of them. Way too many. I used to work as a bartender, you see, and you wouldn't believe what people are willing to tell a bartender. <em>So</em> many secrets. You probably have some too. People usually have secrets. I'll have you know that I keep them pretty well if you're feeling inclined to tell me any. Feel free to let loose as many secrets as you want. Take a load off. Or… uh, tell me none at all, your choice of course. Totally free to say what you want. Or not say anything. I won't force you to speak. But if you want t-"</p><p>"Wraith," she repeated louder, cutting him off before her headache got any worse. "Just call me Wraith."</p><p>He flashed the biggest smile she had seen on his face yet, and there had been more than a few of those already. "Wraith, huh? Wraaaaith," he drew out her name to test how it sounded with his own voice. "It suits you. I think. Did you come up with that yourself?"</p><p>She snorted but said nothing.</p><p>"Sooo… Wraith. Beautiful, dangerously scary but totally badass and awesome Wraith. Since we're now friends and all… Can I <em>please</em> have some of that sweet, sweet water? Throat's getting a little bit parched here."</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>=x=x=x=x=A=x=x=x=x=</strong>
</p><p> </p><p>Twenty minutes later and Mirage had scavenged his own pod for supplies. Unsurprisingly, his pod had exactly the same stuff as hers did, and soon they both had sizable backpacks hanging over their shoulders. When the pod was picked clean, he met up with her some distance away where she was waiting for him with her arms crossed over her chest, fingers drumming against her biceps.</p><p>The entire time he was in the pod getting his stuff together, Mirage would not shut up. He spoke loudly enough to be heard all the way outside to where she was standing, and he didn't seem to care if she was even listening. It was clear to Wraith that he appeared to like the sound of his own voice, while she was beginning to foster a growing hatred for it.</p><p>She didn't respond to anything he said in that time, even when he asked a few questions, all of which she didn't find remotely important enough to actually answer. And she was starting to think that she should just leave him and go her own way so as to be rid of the constant headache he appeared to be. There was certainly ample opportunity to do just that.</p><p>
  <em>He can help you.</em>
</p><p>"Shut up," she growled dangerously at the voice in her head.</p><p>"What was that?" asked her new companion as they trudged through the forest. The voice had told her to go north, so after getting their bearings they made their way in that direction.</p><p>When Mirage had asked why they were going north, she simply said "because" and he had surprisingly accepted that as a legitimate answer and didn't ask any more about it. She had no idea how his mind worked and figured she probably would never find out. Not that she really wanted to in the first place. She mused that any attempt to do so would probably lead to actual insanity.</p><p>"Hey Wraith. Did you say something?" asked Mirage, louder this time as if he thought she hadn't heard him.</p><p>"No."</p><p>"Oh. Alright. That's so strange," he let out a quick laugh. He really liked to laugh. Half the time it sounded obviously forced, but he did it anyway. Perhaps it was to fill the silence. It grated on her nerves, not that he noticed. "You know, I thought you actually said something, but I guess not. Huh… maybe I'm just hearing voices. That would be so weird, wouldn't it? But also kinda cool. And also hilarious, I think. Assuming the voices were funny. Hmm… I wonder what kind of voices I'd hear?"</p><p>Her fists clenched. It was taking all her willpower not to turn around and clock him in the face right now.</p><p>"I don't know if you've noticed," said Mirage after a few minutes of blissful silence, "But it's been super quiet in this forest. Like, super duper quiet." He paused. "It's kind of weird, right? I mean, forests aren't supposed to be this quiet. Are they? I mean, not that I would really know much about forests or anything. I'm not a forest kind of guy. More of a big city man. Or a small city guy. Any city, really… But aren't they supposed to have all kinds of animals and bugs and stuff out here? Of course, I don't <em>want </em>there to be bugs. I just thought there would be some out here, you know? What do you think, Wraith? Wraith?"</p><p><em>Look up</em>, said the voice in Wraith's head.</p><p>She froze and her head whipped up. There was a dull roaring sound coming from above. She tried to peer through the forest canopy, but it was hard to make out the sky beyond it, but now she was sure something was up there. She immediately broke into a run in an effort to find an area that would allow her to see better.</p><p>"Hey! Wait for me!" Mirage called after her, but she didn't slow her pace.</p><p>She ducked and weaved around bushes and low-lying tree branches and jumped over gnarled roots and rocks as she sped through the forest.</p><p>"Why… are we… running?" asked Mirage between haggard breaths as he tried to keep up some ways behind her. She heard the thwack of a branch hitting him behind her and he cried out in mild pain. She didn't stop.</p><p>Eventually, she stumbled upon a river wide enough that she couldn't just jump across even if she had a running start. It didn't appear to be too deep. The clear water gently moved along, bubbling and gurgling lazily.</p><p>The river cut a swath through the forest, and she could see a good portion of the sky because of it.</p><p>"Oh good," Mirage said as he caught up to her, breathing heavily, "We're done running." He bent over, catching his breath, and then noticed the river nearby. "Hey, uh… we're not going to try and swim across that, are we?" he asked nervously. He reached up to rub the back of his head as he looked away. "Because, uh... not gonna lie... I can't swim. I mean, full disclosure, I do lie. Sometimes. Who doesn't? But not this time. I really, <em>really </em>cannot swim. And I'd really prefer not to drown, if that's okay with you. I mean, that would totally be a terrible way to die. Right? Right." He nodded assuredly to himself.</p><p>She ignored him, as she was getting used to doing even though they'd only been together for probably an hour at most. It felt like days already. Her eyes trained at the sky, watching as the dark streak of something entering the atmosphere at high speed moved across her vision.</p><p>Mirage, realizing she wasn't paying him any attention, followed her gaze and let out a whistle. "Wow. That's pretty cool. You don't see that every day. Or maybe you do, but <em>I </em>don't. Usually because I stay indoors half the time. Most of the time. Anyways... that's another escape pod, isn't it? It has to be. And it looks like it's going to land kinda far from us. We should check it out! It'll be so much fun."</p><p>He sounded excited. But then he frowned and gave her a panicked look. "Unless… you don't think it's an actual meteor, do you? Because if it is, we probably should be running away, like, right about now." He gulped.</p><p>"Come," she said curtly as she moved along the riverside trying to find a way across without having to wade into it. She wasn't sure how waterproof the packs were, and they were heavy enough that it would make any crossing potentially dangerous and difficult.</p><p>Besides, she didn't want to get soaking wet. Especially not when they had no way of properly drying off. There was a small towel rolled up in her pack, but it was nowhere near large enough to fully dry her whole body. And wet clothes were one of the many things she truly hated.</p><p>"Ya know," Mirage said with amusement a few seconds later as he followed her, "If I weren't such a dashingly handsome gentleman, I would've totally made a crude remark about your word choice just now. But I didn't. I thought about it, but I didn't. You should be proud of me. I know I am. My mom definitely is. So, uh, you're welcome. Ha-ha!"</p><p>She could practically feel the massive grin on his face behind her right now. Somehow, she could sense that the voice from the void was laughing at her predicament, and for the fifteenth time since they started walking together through the forest, Wraith resisted the urge to punch Mirage in the face.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Wraith's outfit is Void Specialist (without the mask for now. Although she can put it on if she wants, it's tucked away somewhere). Mirage's outfit is The Revenger. This is a lot more fun to write than I thought. Onwards, friends!</p><p>I've changed Wraith's backstory/lore so the voices in her head are not actually her other selves from different parallel universes/dimensions. She was still experimented on in the past, however, and the experiments are what caused the voices and her void manipulation. You may or may not find out more as the story unfolds...</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Crash Landing: Crypto & Wattson</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Tae Joon Park, now better known as Crypto, was a shivering mess of limbs when he stumbled out of the hissing cryo pod and into the slightly larger space of the chamber beyond. Barely able to stay upright, he nearly toppled over as he scrabbled for the sides of the chamber for support.</p><p>Blinking away the last of the haziness in his vision, he cast his eyes about.</p><p>“<em>Jenjang</em>… what the hell happened?” he grumbled, out of breath.</p><p>He recognized the chamber as the interior of an escape pod well enough. Logically, that meant something catastrophic had occurred to the ship that was supposed to transport them to the site of the next Apex Games. An undisclosed location that was supposed to have been set up only recently.</p><p>Was it an accident that caused the ship to activate escape pods? Or sabotage? The latter possibility troubled him. The Syndicate had yet to give up on actually trying to find him, and confident as he was in his abilities and his thoroughness with which he had covered his tracks, he knew that there was always a chance to be discovered. That there might have been something he missed.</p><p>When he felt well enough to move around, he accessed the storage compartment beneath the cryo pod and retrieved two of the most important pieces of equipment he possessed. His handheld collapsible computer with holo screen, which he had put together himself, and Hack, his flying drone that he had also designed and built himself. Thankfully, they both appeared to be in working order.</p><p>Also in the compartment was an emergency survival pack, with food and water that should last him for a little while.</p><p>Deeper in the compartment was a black Hammond P2020, a semi-automatic single-action small caliber pistol. Small and light, it was easy enough to carry and use. Not a lot of stopping power, especially against armored targets, but it was definitely better than nothing. Next to it sat three large magazines for his pistol, each one holding 18 bullets. Two magazines were loaded with regular ammunition while the third one held Hammerpoint rounds.</p><p>He regretted not bringing something with a bit more firepower, but the Hammerpoint rounds should at least do well against any unarmored targets. Now that he was officially in the system, he had not expected to need a weapon before the Games began, though he was of course not stupid enough to not have a weapon on him. The Syndicate was still out looking for him, after all, and he could never be too careful. He just thought the P2020 would be less suspicious to keep around.</p><p>Securing the pistol to a shoulder holster beneath his jet-black jacket, he activated his handheld computer, his face suddenly awash in the glow from the holoscreen as it came to life between his hands. After a few taps and flicks, he was able to wirelessly hack into the escape pod’s barebones computer system.</p><p>“Interesting,” he mumbled as his eyes scanned the information that he was able to retrieve.</p><p>Apparently, the transport ship had encountered a space anomaly and was subsequently damaged beyond repair, forcing all its passengers to be jettisoned via the escape pods like the one he currently found himself in. It was not an act of sabotage after all. He breathed a sigh of relief. The Syndicate had not found him out yet, as he had initially feared.</p><p>Although the question now was: where was he?</p><p>The navigational data he was able to recover seemed to be corrupted, since it made no sense and supposedly matched no known charts in the database. At the very least, he figured that he was on a planet or perhaps even a moon, given the presence of gravity. As a bonus, according to the limited data from the pod’s external sensors, there was also a stable atmosphere with breathable air outside.</p><p>How incredibly fortunate. It would have been very problematic if he had crash-landed onto an inhospitable planet or been stuck in space. He tried to connect to the Extranet but found that there was no signal. Not surprised, though still a little disappointed, he collapsed his computer and pocketed it.</p><p>He was about to go open the hatch when he heard the unmistakable thudding of boots on the exterior of the escape pod. There was someone else out there. But were they friend or foe?</p><p>Tensing, he quickly pressed as far back from the hatch as he could and drew his pistol, flicking off the safety as he held it by his waist. His breathing was steady as he focused his attention solely on the metal hatch.</p><p>The noise outside ceased for a moment. Then there was a tapping sound not unlike the rapping of knuckles on metal that echoed through the chamber. Whoever it was out there, they were knocking.</p><p>“Hello? Is anyone alive in there?” called an accented and unmistakably feminine voice from the other side. He thought it sounded familiar.</p><p>Before he could respond, the hatch abruptly slid open with a hiss, revealing a peculiarly dressed young woman with blonde hair and crystal blue eyes peering into the compartment.</p><p>“Oh! You have a gun!” she exclaimed with eyes widening at the sight of him sighting his pistol at her. One of her hands had come up to cover her mouth, while the other was resting on the outside frame of the hatch. She did not seem the slightest bit scared despite the situation, strangely enough.</p><p>Crypto exhaled, relaxing a little. She did not look like much of a threat, and did not appear to be armed, so he lowered his pistol. However, he did not holster it yet in case she tried anything. He preferred to avoid fighting since he was pretty much trapped in here without any cover if she tried anything, but if that happened, he would not go down without a fight.</p><p>“Who are you?” he asked.</p><p>“I am Natalie Paquette,” answered the woman easily enough in an adorable French accent, “But for the Apex Games, they call me Wattson. You are a competitor too, no?”</p><p>“Yeah,” he replied coolly. “Crypto.”</p><p>“Crypto? Very cool.” She smiled.</p><p>He snorted, looking away momentarily. “Anyone else out there with you?”</p><p>She shook her head. “No. It is only me and Nikola.”</p><p>So, there <em>was </em>someone else then. Why did she say no? “Nikola? Is he a competitor too?” he asked. The name did not sound familiar.</p><p>Her giggle echoed in the chamber like the chiming of bells. “No, silly! Nikola is my cat.”</p><p>Crypto blinked, unsure of he had heard her correctly. “You brought a <em>cat</em>?”</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>****</strong>
</p><p> </p><p>“C’est magnifique!” Wattson cooed, clapping her hands together as she watched Crypto’s drone whizzing overhead.</p><p>She sat atop Crypto’s escape pod, feet dangling over the edge. In her lap lay the still sleeping form of Nikola, her fluffy snow-white cat. Thawing from cryo-sleep had been hard on the feline, apparently.</p><p>He still could not believe that she had brought a cat along with her.</p><p>“And you have named the little robot droid… Hack?” she asked curiously.</p><p>He grunted affirmatively.</p><p>“Ah! Super!”</p><p>Crouching in the dirt next to the pod, Crypto did his best to ignore her ooh-ing and aah-ing as the holo-projectors around his left eye came to life, materializing a holographic heads-up display a few inches in front of his face. With it, he was able to see all sorts of information transmitted by his drone while also being able to look through the drone’s high-tech camera.</p><p>In his hands he held his computer, which was currently acting like a controller for his drone as he manually took it over.</p><p>The reliable range of the drone was limited to approximately 250 meters, or about 820 feet, and though he could technically go as far as 400 meters, or about a quarter mile, the drone’s communication hardware was not good enough to transmit data cleanly and promptly at that distance. He had designed it more for close and mid-range surveillance and support, with its special on-board EMP system and its flight system taking up the vast bulk of the extremely limited space available.</p><p>It would have to do.</p><p>Once he had gotten used to seeing through the drone’s camera, and gotten a feel for its movement, which even after all this time using it still took a few seconds, he began to scout their surroundings.</p><p>Their pods had crash landed in what looked to be a boreal forest that sprawled for dozens of miles around, with towering evergreen trees massing together like some wooden army assembled for a great battle.</p><p>The two survivors were currently in the middle of the crater formed by his escape pod crash landing into the earth, a gaping pockmark in the otherwise untouched forest. Immediately around the crater, the ground was mostly flat, but there were hills rising up from the forest floor a few miles to the north and west. Further west the hills turned into mountains, with some of them wreathed in white snow and cloaked in swirling white clouds.</p><p>To the south, the forest stretched for some distance before giving way to a wide plain of grass, bushes, and dirt. He could see a herd of some unknown animal moving across it en masse.</p><p>Looking east, he could see another pillar of smoke and steam, similar to the one that drifted up above them currently. Some of the broken and shattered trees nearby were still burning, and the air smelled of fresh earth and burnt wood.</p><p>From what he could see, there were no signs of civilization anywhere nearby. No ships or other vehicles to be seen and, perhaps more importantly, no signals of any kind in the airwaves, which meant one of two things: either the planet was uninhabited, or they were far enough from any locals that the drone was unable to pick any signals up.</p><p>Switching to thermal sensors, he noted that there were no living creatures nearby. Apparently, none of them had stuck around when two flaming pods descended from the heavens in what he presumed was a mighty crash.</p><p>He kept searching for anything else of note, but there did not seem to be much more to see.</p><p>So engrossed was he in his scouting that he failed to realize that Wattson had suddenly appeared in front of him, her knees pressing against the dirt as she peered at him curiously. Or perhaps she was looking at the holo-screen, it was impossible to know for sure.</p><p>He blinked, frozen in place for a moment with his eyes refocusing to look beyond the holo-screen over his face and straight into the far-too close face of the girl he had just met. Her sharp blue eyes were alight with what seemed like wonder as she stared at him, and he was close enough to make out the faint tendrils of faded scars that branched like a tree across her left cheek.</p><p>“Salut!” she said cheerily, smiling and tilting her head slightly.</p><p>Stumbling back with a jolt as if struck by lightning, Crypto landed on his butt and immediately narrowed his eyes at her.</p><p>“Wh-What are you doing?” he stammered, his normally cool demeanor shaken for a moment.</p><p>Wattson leaned back and sat on her heels, arms cradling Nikola as the kitty purred and shifted around a little. She did not seem to mind that she was kneeling in the dirt, but then Crypto realized that she was wearing knee pads.</p><p>“Don’t look so <em>shocked!</em>” she giggled as if she had said something funny, “You were so focused I just had to take a look at what you were doing.” She absently began stroking Nikola with one hand, eliciting some more purring from the feline.</p><p>Crypto opened his mouth to tell her off, but then thought better of it as he saw how innocently she was looking at him. Somehow the thought of upsetting her didn’t sit well with him. “Did you have to look so close?” he muttered, feeling the need to at least say something.</p><p>“How else was I supposed to see the holo-screen clearly?”</p><p>“So that’s what you were looking at?”</p><p>She tilted her head again, looking puzzled. “What did you think I was looking at?”</p><p>“Nothing,” he answered a little too quickly. “Nevermind. Just… forget about it.”</p><p>She eyed him then shrugged, glancing at Nikola as she continued to gently stroke his fur. Some of the strands began to stand up from a slight buildup of static. The cat didn’t seem to mind.</p><p>Heartrate elevated, breathing erratic, and a warmth spreading across his cheeks, Crypto frowned and looked away. He needed to get a hold of himself. Shaking his head, he called back his drone and collapsed his computer, putting it away.</p><p>He remembered her now. Seeing her face up close had jolted his memory. He had read her personnel file in the Apex Games database when he had hacked into it some time ago, before he inserted himself among them.</p><p>Natalie Paquette, daughter of the chief engineer of the Games, Luc Paquette. She was some kind of engineering prodigy who had grown up at the heart of the Apex Games thanks to her father. If Crypto was remembering correctly, she was actually the one responsible for creating the Modified Containment Ring they used in all of the matches. A feat as impressive as it was terrifying.</p><p>Hard to believe that such a seemingly innocent girl could hold such a brilliant mind. Her background did explain why she was unafraid of him earlier when he had aimed his pistol at her. She was probably used to seeing death and destruction on a daily basis.</p><p>Looking at her with renewed interest and some newfound respect, he got to his feet and wiped away some of the dirt from his pants.</p><p>“Come on. I think we should head west and get to higher ground,” he said.</p><p>“Why? What did you see?” she asked, again with that almost childlike curiosity.</p><p>Trying to ignore how endearing she was acting, he briefly told her about the surrounding area, and then reiterated that they should get moving since it would be better to find some shelter before sunset. This being an unknown planet, they had no idea how long daylight would last, and they therefore had to take advantage of as much of it as they could.</p><p>“Mmm… Okay, your plan makes sense I think,” she agreed after a few seconds of thought, “And we must be sure to find someplace where we can draw fresh water too. Our supplies will only last so long, and Nikola can get super <em>grumpy</em> if not fed enough or given enough water.”</p><p>Crypto gave her a nod and then eyed the cat, who yawned, baring his small fangs and extending his tongue into the air a bit. Even the cat seemed surprisingly calm given the circumstances, likely because its owner was exceedingly calm.</p><p>“I’ll lead the way,” he said.</p><p>She beamed at him and shot to her feet. “Allons-y!”</p><p>With a snort, Crypto shouldered his pack and watched as she went over to grab hers from the other side of the pod, where she had taken it off earlier before climbing up onto it. There was a giant contraption of some sort attached to the pack, with a bulky cylinder up top that had thick electric coils on either end.</p><p>He tried to remember what it was and what it did, but his mind was still not quite recovered from the cryosleep and was currently being uncooperative. He knew that he had seen the specs for it before, but he could not recall it exactly. It had something to do with electricity. Frowning, he decided to leave it for later, as he felt the beginnings of a headache coming on from the effort.</p><p>The thrumming sound of his drone filled the silence, growing louder as it neared. Almost unconsciously, after having done it countless times, he extended his hand up and Hack flew into his waiting palm with a light but satisfying smack. The drone immediately folded up and powered down as he reached behind him and holstered it in one smooth motion.</p><p>Wattson gasped. “Super cool,” she said excitedly. “How long can it go on one charge? Does it charge in the holster? Or is it perhaps self-charging while in-flight?”</p><p>Crypto sighed. “It charges itself.”</p><p>“I’m sorry. I always get ec-static about technology and gadgets,” she said, giggling again.</p><p>Shaking his head, he spoke in a flat voice. “Let’s go.” He headed west and began walking up to the edge of the crater, expecting her to follow.</p><p>She did, her footsteps quick as she caught up to him. “Crypto?”</p><p>He didn’t answer right away as they reached the edge of the crater and stepped up onto the forest floor.</p><p>“Yeah?” he finally said as they cleared the crater and plunged into the forest.</p><p>“Do you think,” she paused for only a moment, “Do you think I can play around with Hack sometime? Please?” she asked hopefully.</p><p>“No.” He briefly gave her an odd look.</p><p>She looked down at her feet, dejected. “Oh. Okay.”</p><p>He tried to ignore the disappointment in her voice as he stepped over a six-foot-long piece of fallen pine, a casualty of his sudden and destructive arrival here. His drone was not a toy for her to play with. Surely, she understood that, but if she did not, well… tough luck.</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>****</strong>
</p><p> </p><p>The low rumbling noise coming from above had Crypto immediately running for cover, with Wattson only a second behind him. He reached behind him and activated Hack, pulling the drone out of its holster and throwing it high into the air, where it swiftly unfolded and did a quick automated sweep of the immediate vicinity. It beeped an all-clear, indicating no hostile activity detected.</p><p>At the same time, his other hand had already reached into his jacket pocket to pull out his computer and the drone’s HUD appeared on the holo-screen that flickered to life in front of his face.</p><p>“What is it?” Wattson asked, hugging Nikola close to her chest as they both leaned into the bottom of a particularly large tree. The cat meowed, sensing the tension in them both.</p><p>“Not sure.” He concentrated on flying Hack above the treeline, zooming around the leaves and branches on the way up into the sky for a better view.</p><p>Angling the drone to look straight up into the sky, Crypto saw them. Several dark streaks were cutting across the sky and between the clouds. If he had to guess, these were other pods from the ship only now entering the atmosphere. Why the delay?</p><p>“What’s making that noise? What do you see, Crypto?” whispered Natalie, who was now leaning over his shoulder.</p><p>He could feel her warm breath tickling his cheek, and her body pressing lightly into his back.</p><p>“Don’t get so close!” he whispered harshly, and she recoiled as if struck.</p><p>Nikola hissed unhappily. Whether it was at being jostled or from his tone of voice, it was hard to say.</p><p>“Pardon! Sorry,” Wattson said, apologetic. She half-turned away and kept a respectable distance.</p><p>He spared a quick glare at her, his heart racing, as he refocused on the video feed from the drone. He needed to concentrate.</p><p>“Sorry,” Wattson whispered again. Then she proceeded to calm down her cat as quietly as she could, which was still noisy enough to be distracting given their close proximity, but Crypto did his best to ignore them.</p><p>The pods appeared to all be landing west and southwest of their current position. At least they were already going in the right direction.</p><p>“There are other pods streaking through the sky,” he finally said, feeling a little guilty at how he had snapped at her earlier. Though she should have known better than to invade his personal space like that, especially after he had already told her earlier not to do that.</p><p>Wattson glanced at him. “Do you think they’re—"</p><p>“Part of our ship? Yeah. Most likely.”</p><p>“How many pods do you see?” She looked up, as if she could see the sky past the trees.</p><p>“Seven.”</p><p>“Maybe it’s the other competitors?” she speculated, but before he could reply she continued, “No, no. That cannot be. Of course not. The ship would not have waited so long to launch the other escape pods. It’s more likely that we were all launched together, which means—”</p><p>“Which means the other competitors are probably already on the ground, like us,” he finished the thought. That was exactly what he was thinking too. As far as he knew, there were twelve competitors on board the ship, so in terms of numbers alone it didn’t add up.</p><p>But if the pods up there were not the other competitors, then who or what was in them? And where<em> were</em> the other competitors?</p><p>“Let’s keep moving,” he said, getting back to his feet and pocketing his computer as his holo-screen disappeared. “All the pods were landing either to the west or southwest of our current position. We’re bound to come across them if we keep going that way, and we can find out for ourselves.”</p><p>Judging from the angle and direction that they were falling, the landing sites for those pods were far enough away that he doubted they would be able to get to them before nightfall. At best, they might come across one of the pods tomorrow.</p><p>Right now, what was most important was to secure a place to hunker down for the night. There was no point in traveling at night through a new landscape on an unknown planet, especially with the other competitors out there somewhere. Some of them might not be too friendly.</p><p>He glanced at Wattson, who was looking intently at him.</p><p>“I’m right behind you,” she said firmly.</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>****</strong>
</p><p> </p><p>The air was dry and cool beneath the forest of evergreens, with the occasional breeze blowing between the tree trunks, rustling leaves, and swaying branches. The sounds of insects began to fill the air, growing louder the farther they got from the crash site.</p><p>Crypto, wary of encountering the other competitors, decided for the time being to keep Hack out and following them, keeping a lookout from high up in the air as it weaved in and out between the trees.</p><p>Wattson did not appear to have any guns on her, but that did not mean the others were the same. A few of them surely brought weapons along for the journey, and now that they were stranded here, who knew what they would decide to do?</p><p>He spied the girl and her cat from the corner of his eye. Now that he thought about it, he never really confirmed whether or not she had a weapon on her. Though his gut instinct told him that she meant him no harm, at least for now, he figured it would be better if he found out for sure.</p><p>“Did you build it yourself?” Wattson asked, interrupting his thoughts as they continued to walk.</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“Hack,” she clarified, “Did you build the drone yourself?”</p><p>“Yeah.”</p><p>“I thought so! The design is quite unique, though I see some similarities with the drone cameras that were always buzzing around during the Games.” Wattson eyed the drone that flitted between branches over their heads.</p><p>He said nothing. The reason for the similarities was because he had designed those very same drone cameras that she spoke of. They were all derivatives of Hack, designed and built in a time when he was not Crypto. In a time when he was still only Tae Joon Park. He sighed. That felt like a lifetime ago.</p><p>The drone cameras were far less sophisticated than Hack, naturally, since those other drones only served one purpose: to stream and record everything happening in the Games. He remembered working on them with Mila… he frowned, shaking his head and taking a deep breath of the crisp afternoon air. He didn’t want to think of her here. Not now.</p><p>“I’m an engineer too, you know,” said Wattson with a hint of pride. He could tell that she was bursting to talk, to fill the silences that seemed to cling and wrap around Crypto like a cape. “I’ve always liked solving puzzles and learning new things, but most of all I love designing things. And then building them, of course! It really is electrifying to see your creations come to life, no?”</p><p>He grunted. One of the few times he bothered with some form of a response.</p><p>She smiled, eyes alight with excitement. “To learn the secrets and uncover the circuits that run the universe and then apply all that knowledge to add something new to that same universe, something that had not existed before… it is a feeling like no other. It almost feels like you can do anything, anything at all. Such things get me <em>positively</em> excited!” With Nikola now resting in the pouch formed by the hood of her jacket, leaving her hands free, Wattson clapped her hands together energetically.</p><p>Crypto kept silent as she continued to talk, for once not minding the lack of silence. Perhaps it was because he wanted to distract himself from his normal brooding over darker thoughts, or perhaps it was because he was reminded of his old self, the one that used to have that same sense of innocent wonder and exuberance about the universe. Maybe it was even a little bit of both.</p><p> </p><p>****</p><p> </p><p>They reached the foothills to the west a few hours later, the rocky dirt mounds covered in trees and brush as the forest engulfed them completely. The ground sloped upward gradually, and they followed a more-or-less straight line to the top of the first hill, with Crypto’s drone continuing its vigilant watch above them.</p><p>Hack detected the first signs of animal life moving about the forest once they were halfway up the hill. Apparently, this was far enough away from the undoubtedly serious disturbance the arrival of the pods caused to the forest denizens.</p><p>They were small critters, rabbits and squirrels scurrying about the forest floor or scampering up trees. Birds also flitted through the air, some chirping and others squawking. Surprisingly, they very much resembled the animals that they had seen before on other worlds.</p><p>The trees too looked mighty familiar, as if someone from the colonized worlds had come here and seeded the planet a long time ago. It was to be expected that unknown habitable planets such as this one would have their own distinct flora and fauna, and yet here was evidence to the contrary.</p><p>Granted, there were instances of planets with similar atmospheres having similar lifeforms across the universe. Plus, they had only seen a tiny fraction of this world. Perhaps there were other parts of the planet that were home to more unique species of plants and animals.</p><p>Despite that, Crypto’s instincts told him that there was a high likelihood that there were locals inhabiting this planet. But the only way to know for sure was to gather more data. Until then, it was a waste of time to speculate any more than he already had, so he pushed such thoughts aside and concentrated on the task at hand.</p><p>True to form, Wattson was enthusiastic about the small animals, remarking that she found them all adorable. Much the same way as she had upon first seeing Hack, she ooh’d and ahh’d and chattered excitedly about them and the birds for a little while. She became focused on searching them out amidst the foliage, pointing to them whenever she found one.</p><p>Eventually though, even Wattson fell silent. Crypto supposed it was difficult to continue a mostly one-sided conversation, but he had nothing to say and was usually not exactly in a talkative mood to begin with. And he was definitely not the type of person to say something simply for the sake of filling silence.</p><p>Their trek through the forest-covered hills continued with nothing but the rustle of leaves, the sound of insects, and the occasional bird call to listen to.</p><p>With the sun beginning to near the horizon and the hills growing larger, the shadows beneath the forest canopy grew longer and darker as they journeyed on. Cresting the next hill, they sighted the mountains in the distance, still a ways off but looming closer now than they had been when they first started off.</p><p>Crypto slowed and turned Wattson. “Let’s take a rest here. I’ll scout around using Hack. Try and find us a place to hole up for the night.”</p><p>“Okay,” said Wattson. She sounded a bit tired, and even Crypto had to admit that he too was starting to feel fatigue creep into his legs.</p><p>He was impressed that she had not complained at all about their lack of rest thus far, but then again, she was a competitor in the Apex Games. The Games were no place for the weak.</p><p>Plopping down next to a wide tree trunk, he shrugged off his backpack and then leaned his back against the tree, spreading his legs out over the dirt to give them some rest. Seconds later and he was back to controlling his drone manually.</p><p>He did not know how long he was operating his drone for, it certainly did not feel that long, when he was abruptly shaken out of his concentration by Wattson. She was gripping his arm firmly when he returned to himself, a bit disconcerted. Turning off the holoscreen, he faced her with a most irritated expression.</p><p>He was about to berate her when she placed a finger to her lips and shook her head, eyeing him with a stern expression that instantly silenced the words that had been ready to go in the back of his throat. He noticed then that she was incredibly tense and alert, breathing slowly and quietly, and in one hand she held a two-stack of the circular contraptions that she had several of attached to the outside of her thighs.</p><p>Instinctively, his hand reached for the handle of his pistol as he focused his senses for the source of her concern. Was it one of the other competitors? Or was it the native people of this world? And then he heard it.</p><p>The loud growl of an animal close by. A very large animal, from the sound of it.</p><p>Crypto and Wattson shared a look, and then Crypto raised a finger up to his own lips to mimic what she had done earlier. He was trying to convey that they should remain quiet until the animal passed. Not every battle has to be fought. She stared at him for a few seconds before giving him a nod of understanding.</p><p>There was movement at the edge of his vision. Something large and covered in brown fur lumbered through the trees. It resembled something like a grizzly bear, but even larger than they should be, which was saying something.</p><p>Yes, he definitely did not want to deal with a giant bear if he didn’t have to. He would rather save what little ammunition he had for later.</p><p>It appeared not to have noticed them, or perhaps it did but did not care, and was moving east. It snorted and growled as it continued. But just when they thought they would get out of it peacefully, Nikola decided to wake up. Maybe the cat heard the growling, or maybe it was something else that tipped it off to the passing predator, but the cat began to hiss and rustle around in Wattson’s hood.</p><p>Wattson grimaced as Crypto stared at them in disbelief. She tried to quiet the kitty by making shushing sounds and reaching into her hood to try and pet it, but it was too late. The bear-like creature had stopped in its tracks and was now staring right at them.</p><p>Crypto cursed quietly in Korean.</p><p>Nikola, still hissing and clearly agitated, leaped from Wattson’s hood to the top of her head, claws finding purchase on her thick synthetic cap. A look of surprise flashed across her face before the young woman made to grab him with her free hand, but the kitty jumped off a second before she could reach him. He landed on the forest floor and hissed again in the direction of the nearby bear.</p><p>“Nikola!” whispered Wattson fiercely.</p><p>The bear turned its massive body towards them and roared.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>The legends are all pretty far away from each other at this point, but eventually they will meet up and interact. As for attire: Wattson is in her base skin (I don't find any of the non-themed/non-robot ones appealing and I don't want to make her a robot) while Crypto is in his "The Hired Gun" skin.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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